Light Painting After a Photo Session...

Normally, when the sun goes down and all the golden light is gone I shut down the camera and end a photo session. But sometimes, I use the darkness to my advantage...or at the very least to have some creative fun.

Last night, after using up all the golden light left from the sunset in Malibu Creek State Park, I decided to experiment with some light painting.

Light painting in photography basically involves leaving the shutter open for a specified amount of time and using an external light source to "paint" a scene. It's basically the same technique used to photograph lighting during thunderstorms. In that case, the lightning essentially paints the scene.

Below is one of the photos from last night using this technique.

Here's how it's done...
Now this photo involves a lit bit of trial and error, but here's how we did it. First of all, I set my focus point to the location the model (Grace) was going to stand. I locked the focus there, and then I had a another location from where Grace would draw a "G" using the light from my cell phone.

Grace would utlize both locations to create the image. The difference between the locations is that
I used a slave to fire an AlienBee 800 at the second location once Grace was in place. I did not fire the AlienBee in the location where Grace drew the "G".

So to summarize, I used a 13 second exposure set at F-11. During those 13 seconds Grace drew a "G" in location one. Then I covered the lens with my hand while she moved to the second location, the location with the locked focus. Once she was in place, around the 8 second mark, I fired the AlienBee. I then covered the lens with my hand once again until the shutter closed at the 13 second mark.

Below is another image except Grace drew a heart in this one.

Again, once the sun goes down, it doesn't mean you can't shoot some creative portraits using advanced techniques. Just like everything else in phoography, it takes a lot of practice to get the technique down. -CG

Below are some more images from the session in the evening.

External light sources, Grace and some balloons...

Ohh how I love clouds. They make portraiture so much easier. The diffused lighting is probably my favorite type of light (second to golden evening light you get from typical sunsets). This evening was one of those classic cloudy evenings in Malibu, where the light was even and the clouds glowed perfectly as sun rays dashed between them. It was a perfect opportunity to photograph Grace...and so I did. Along with some balloons.

Now I've always advocated shooting portraits with nothing but natural light, something I'm very loyal about doing. But most recently, I've been experimenting with external light sources and have grown quite fond of being able to directly control my light source.

The challenges of shooting in the field with an external light source (not flashes) makes photography much more fun for me. Of course, taking studio equipment into the field and finding electricity to fuel the lights is no longer a problem. Thanks to portable power sources. Thanks to the Vagabond Portable Power Units I can use a strobe anywhere in the field.

I've actually gotten quite creative with how I direct light. From bending umbrellas, to mounting a strobe on a monopod and having an assistant hold it up at precise locations, it's made photography much more fun.

For years, I've had studio lights but portable power has allowed me to expand my creative abilities.  Photographing Grace tonight I used an 800w AlienBee with Vagabond power, and of course some balloons.

Here are the results:

Golden light at the Malibu Pier...

This evening, I realized I hadn't actually walked the beach near the Malibu Pier at sunset in a very very long time. So since I've not posted anything in a long time as well, it seemed like a good time to return to both respectively.

As always, the sunset was golden and the light was just magnificent. One thing struck my eye when I got there though. The extremely low tide and the abundance of rocks. I've been to the pier many times before but never actually out far enough to be parallel with it from an extremely low tide. 

For the images I captured this evening I used a Canon 5D Mark iii equipped with 70-200mm 2.8 Sigma lens and a 3 Stop Neutral Density filter. I also used a Canon 24-105mm F4 for the wider stuff.

Here's just a few images from the evening with a couple notes on each -cg

The image below really surprised me. I was trying to focus on the leading lines and the depth of field created by the 200mm at 2.8. With such a shallow depth of field the effect came out nicely. 

Now the image below was taken with the 70-200mm 2.8. Instead of shooting this one wide open, it was shot at F-18 with a 1.5 second exposure. The 1.5 second exposure allowed me to capture the motion in the water.

Black and White version....

The images below were all taken with the sun behind me at 1/10 at F-14 and 100 ISO.